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Maybe I shouldn’t be so annoyed or show how angry the man made me, but I couldn’t change my heritage or feistiness and I’d tried. I did what I usually did in these circumstances. I stood, tossing the remainder of wine in the man’s face, and tore up the contract in four distinct pieces, tossing the papers in his face.
“As I told you earlier, neither the rig nor I am for sale. Get a grip and shove it up your ass.” With that, I walked away, sensing the dangerous man was fuming.
I didn’t bother looking at the three men nor did I care what they thought of me. I powered out of the restaurant, trying my best to control my nerves. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What had I just done? Maybe it was a good thing I’d be on a rig for a few months. Oh, God. What about my son, my father, and my sister?
Refusing to look back, I headed for my car, my heart in my throat. At least I’d parked in an area I doubted the bastard could see from where he sat on his perch. Why had my father talked to the man in the first place? Why? Had he felt that desperate with the circumstances or had my papa been approached with a deal he’d found tough to refuse?
Thirty million dollars. Thirty fucking million. It was an insane amount of money for a broken-down rig. The bank thought it was worth no more than eight million, which was the reason we couldn’t get any extensions. What was I missing?
Either way, it no longer mattered. I’d put my foot down.
Let’s hope it remained attached for the rest of my life.
As soon as I reached my car, I felt a heated presence behind me second before a hand jerked my arm, tossing me around to face whoever it was. I reacted instantly, or in this case overreacted, issuing a brutal smack across a man’s face.
Oh, shit. It was Hudson.
The two others were right behind. Had Madden seen them following me?
Gasping, I placed the same hand I’d used nearly knocking his block off and pressed it across my lips. But as usual, my personality took over and I was incensed. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Trying to stop you from doing something else stupid,” Jack answered while Hudson still fumed, his eyes remaining closed.
Hudson shifted his jaw back and forth, slowly opening his gorgeous eyes. He’d been the sweet one, the jovial guy that appeared to have a heart of gold. He certainly hadn’t deserved my wrath.
“Do you know who that fucker is?” he asked.
“I know perfectly well who he is, Hudson. I do my homework,” I told all of them, noticing Foxx had his arms crossed over his massive chest.
“What were you doing having a meeting with a notorious mafia man?” he asked a few seconds later. “Is there something we need to know? Are you in bed with that monster?”
The nerve of the guy. I sensed he was fuming for two reasons, the second because the term ‘bed’ had been brought up on purpose. Did all men think they owned a woman?
I shifted to the side to gather some additional space, still trying to calm down. “Of course not. I just…” The last thing I wanted to admit was that my father had considered selling to Mr. Byrne. It was embarrassing. Hudson crowded me once again, his aftershave perfect in every way, filling my nostrils with muskiness and spice, my mind with preposterous but juicy images.
“Give her some fucking space, gentlemen. Maybe she doesn’t understand how he acquires all those businesses he owns.” Jack’s words were said with darkness in mind, his eyes more pointed than I’d seen before. “He’s a killer, Rylee. You need to know that.”
My mouth was dry. I glanced from one man to the other before glancing over Foxx’s shoulder. “I do know that.” A part of me wanted to tell them exactly what had been said, but I didn’t know I could trust them. At this point, I wasn’t certain who I could trust at all.
“Then what the fuck were you doing with him?” Hudson demanded. “Do you like playing with fire or have a death wish?”
“First of all,” I said as I got more into his face, planting my hands on my hips. “It’s none of your goddamn business. Second, I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”
“We’re not getting anywhere, boys, and I don’t think we want Madden to become too nosy as to where our little Irish filly went,” Foxx suggested. “He’s a dangerous man and when he sets his sights on something he wants, he takes it.”
“I got that too. But he’s not taking my father’s rig!” I hadn’t intended on spouting it off, but I couldn’t seem to shut my mouth around these three hotties. They just did that to me, my Irish blood roaring into a firestorm.
“Interesting,” Hudson said, backing down slightly. The way he looked at the two others meant he knew something.
“What does that mean?”
“It means, sweetheart, that your boy Declan had a meeting with that man only minutes before you walked into the restaurant.” Jack seemed pleased he’d broken the news to me.
“You’re lying,” I said, but my throat tightened to the point I was nearly suffocating. Why would Declan be meeting with Madden? My mind was swimming with possibilities and all of them were ugly.
“Why would he lie about something like that? I followed him earlier and the same two goons Madden Byrne had protecting him showed up at Declan’s house. We followed Declan here. It would seem the two men were very cozy. Maybe you should ask yourself why. Or why we saw him taking a big, fat envelope. Do you want to venture a guess as to what was inside?”
The lump was larger, making it difficult to swallow let alone breathe. Declan had taken a payoff? How could he do that?
